RE: Processor failure

The
most important thing you need to do is remove any wax that is present
in the tissue. There is bound to be a small amount of impregnation even
after what the tissue has been through.

This
is essential before any repeat processing is attempted.

I
would put the blocks through the "flush cycle" on the VIP, i.e. xylenes (or
substitute) followed by alcohols, preferably at 45 degrees centigrade, to ensure
complete wax removal and impregnation by the alcohol.

This
should get your tissue back to a state where it can then be re-hydrated safely
with minimal tissue damage.

Fixation would not appear to be a problem so you could
miss that step out when you re-process to speed things up a
bit.

Last week our embedded came in to embed and found
that the tissue was not fixed. After some investigation, we found that
the some of the carbouys on the processors had been misplaced. Our
tissue had gone through a 10% formalin, a 100% alcohol , 50% alcohol , 80%
alcohol , two 95% alcohols, 100% alcohol, back into a 10% formalin and then
into two xylenes, and then into four paraffin baths. We are using a VIP
processor.

Now the question is how do we go about reprocessing
the tissue. Any help that you can give us would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks, JoeySt.
Mary's HospitalGrand Junction,
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